Ephemeral

Chapter 25

I have always been a confident person. I didn't care if I ever got picked on to speak in front of the class in middle school. I didn't care if I had to present a project on how pregnancy worked in front of immature sophomores. I didn't care if I had to attend ten interviews for colleges back to back.

However right now, at this very moment in time, I'm not confident. Right now I'm hiding under a staircase while a bunch of cameras flash outside and a bunch of random people make their way inside the courtroom. A bunch of random people I've never seen or heard of are currently sitting in a court room waiting to see the drama unfold. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a rich and well known business man get thrown into prison?

Right now I'm hiding, my hands and legs are trembling at the thought of being called up on the stand, and speaking about the things I kept buried deep down for years. Things that I did everything humanely possible to hide from anyone and everyone.

I'll be standing in front of complete strangers and I'll be telling them how much of a coward I was not to get help earlier. I'll be humiliating myself by telling them how I let this man hit me whenever and however he pleased for as long as I can remember.

They'll laugh. They'll sit in their seats and laugh because it's pathetic. I'm pathetic and the man on trial is even more pathetic.

"Avery?" I heard Luca's familiar voice call from down the hall as I hugged my legs closer to my chest and closed my eyes. Wishing the rule that being unable to see means you're unseen was true.

"Luca find her, I don't think she'll respond if we all go." Gabriel said as I strained my ears, listening to a bunch of footsteps grow faint.

"There you are." I heard him say, letting out a sigh of relief as I opened my eyes and watched him uncomfortably crawl over to me. "You not coming?" He asked, sitting down besides me and taking my hand in his.

"I don't want to." I admitted. I really don't.

"Okay." He said, taking me by surprise. Okay? I expected him to sit here and ramble on about how important it is for me to be there. "It's not like they need your statement, sure it'll get him two decades less but hey at least he'll be in prison for a little while." He shrugged.

"I know what you're doing, I'm not stupid." I said as I rolled my eyes and attempted to pull my hand out of his. He didn't let me, his hold only tightened.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, a mischievous smile on his face only making me roll my eyes once again.

"Do you think death row is an option for him?" I asked after a couple moments of silence.

"I don't think it is but the decades he'll get in prison will be worse than death." He said, pulling me closer to him making me lean my head on his shoulder.

"Do you think I'm a good person?" I asked, instantly wishing I could take it back and keep my mouth shut.

"I think you could be a better person, but then again everyone can be better people." He answered. I expected him to sugar coat the hell out of me. To tell me I'm the best person he's ever met and all that jazz.

"If I be a better person, what are the chances things actually start going in my favour?" I asked. What if maybe all this time horrible things have been happening to me because I've been a bad person?

"Horrible things happen to good people, it's like an unwritten rule but that doesn't mean you need to change or make yourself better. People don't say the world is a cruel place for no reason." He said before crawling out from under the stairs.

"I don't want to go." I said, noticing how he was crouched down waiting for me to come.

"Cmon Luna, do this one thing for yourself." He said, stretching his hand out for me to take.